R is for Robot
Posted by dogtrax on May 2, 2007
Scott had a heck of a time moving his movie out of Mac in a format for sharing with our ABC project, but here it is and he wonderfully captures the childhood fascination (speaking as another father of three little boys) with robotic things.
Here is what he wrote as a reflection:
It looks as though I am finally successful. Let me share my tour of the tools to get to my destination.
I used iMovie to assimilate the pictures. I then shared it to Garageband to add and edit the audio. My next step was to share it to iTunes as a Movie. This is where things started getting tough for me. It shared as an MOV file. Not a problem other than I had no control over quality or video size (which was set to the highest levels) so each video was several hundred MB. I needed to convert it to 640×480 to lessen the size. I didn’t want to buy QuickTime Pro just for that (retrospect it would have been easier).
I then decided to share from Garageband as a video podcast instead. The file size was much smaller (about 14 and 25 MB). Unfortunately, the file type was m4v instead of mp4. Not sure why iTunes does that. Anyway, I could not find shareware/freeware software to convert m4v to anything. I even tried the online sources like Zamzar and one other I cannot remember the name of. Neither liked m4v (thanks again Apple). Google, TeacherTube, and Jumpcut gave me nothing but trouble trying to upload these since it is not a preferred file type for them. TeacherTube outright kicked it back while the other two acted like it was loading and never did. Jumpcut finally (after two days solid) accepted them.
I decided I had to go back to the PC for some tools I was familiar with. I used my Gig flash drive to move the large MOV files over to my PC. I used Kate’s Video Converter (free download from download.com), adjusted the QuickTime file type conversion settings to MP4 file conversion with a 640×480 size, and got busy converting. That worked like a charm. Since these file types are much larger than m4v video podcasts (43 MB and 84 MB compared to 14 and 25 MB), I chose to install Google Video Uploader (free from Google Video site for Mac or PC) so I can monitor the upload and see where the problems might be occurring.
Low and behold, no more trouble. It still took awhile to upload even on T1, but they are finally there. So, I am now finished with this portion of the project. My two videos, G and R, are loaded on Google Video with the tags ABC2007 and are also loaded to Jumpcut as well as added to the collaborative group there.
– Kevin
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I love the movie.
Here is a link for the video converter that Scott mentions:
http://www.download.com/Kate-s-Video-Converter-Free-/3000-2194_4-10656056.html
Kevin
May 4th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Thanks Scott,for hanging in there. I think that you should give Mac more time. If you just stayed in Imovie, you have everything right there and it might have been easier for you. If you live near an Apple store and you are willing to invest $99.00 you can get one hour a week of one-on-one support and I would consider investing in PRO.
For me it was very easy to move to mac and leave the pc behind, but I was at an early stage of digital work. You probably have a dual platform. That’s my next computer. You can have the best of both worlds.
What a cool way to create a DS!
Bonnie
May 5th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
I am not planning on moving back into a PC anytime soon except where the school gives me no choice. My IT hates it, but he understands. I think having Pro would have made it easier. Also, this will be my first summer with the Mac, so I will have some time to play and learn. That is one of the main reasons I jumped into this project. I knew it would force me to try it now instead of waiting a few months. Thanks for your continual support throughout the ordeal. I now have another freeware program called FE Convert Drop that did the same job for me with no problem. It just took some time to find it. I still have some questions about the whole sharing through iLife process, but I do not have an Apple store within 150 miles to go to. I just started a $12000 grant I was awarded with Apple to install a podcast/blogging server in my ISD. I expect I will get quite a bit of free advice as we go along there. I will pass it along as I learn it. Thanks again.